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Continuation of R2R DAC Discussion From Stax Thread


Sechtdamon

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1 hour ago, spritzer said:

I normally use the Wiha 36050 stippers but they do wear out after a while with the 24# teflon stuff.  The Wiha 24672 is supposed to be better but I need the bloody PTFE cartridge for it... 

Something wrong with Ideal T-strippers? Mine are 30+ years old and still work just fine, including teflon, which is pretty much all I use.

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Okay thanks anyway. The PCM1702 definitely does not support DSD :D The DA500 has got that typical R2R smooth sound but there's some weird high frequency noise going on that's messing with the sound of the fundamental frequencies. Might be some sort of sideband going on. I'm wondering if it might be from jitter (in the flesh!).. don't think it's from the ALPHA processor because I've heard other Denon products with it and they didn't have this high frequency noise. 

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Why not get one of those USB to SPDIF converters? That way you only need one.

 

To back you up, my old Denon AVR-3300 with the 1704's still sounds really good to me, no high frequency problems. Thought I'm looking at getting something new, or building something new.

Edited by Tinkerer
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So the Denafrips arrived an hour or so ago and here are some pics.  First off, it can certainly hold its ground against the MSB Platinum DAC3 with the new Carbon CC and SR-007Mk1BL.  Way too early for an concrete findings but resolution in the Denafrips might be a bit better, the sound just a tad more forward and maybe a tad thinner...not sure to be honest but the DAC is still dead cold. 

Over all the build quality is excellent, solid steel box with an aluminum front panel.  All quality pieces used through out and even the mains select switch is a nice C&K unit, not the horrible open cheapo shit that's in the Holo. 

_2150380.thumb.jpg.293f973d967d9c9d894fb14d595f5207.jpg_2150381.thumb.jpg.2915c853ce7c7483b7f43649af75399e.jpg_2150382.thumb.jpg.85ed4dfa724d56627f1a44549457d465.jpg_2150383.thumb.jpg.3b7e8a1073890c90c26763aaaed25fc9.jpg_2150384.thumb.jpg.f23671e45ede606b42102e0eea4a5862.jpg_2150387.thumb.jpg.c787054d032d66e7167f1377bb0bf433.jpg_2150388.thumb.jpg.850670c6026ebe217ec426d7cb636e67.jpg_2150386.thumb.jpg.e802193f96c70bea0dc02a5c9215ad38.jpg_2150379.thumb.jpg.d335077a0340bf5e7cfd77777b4b4347.jpg_2150385.thumb.jpg.aaa5d12fcd8c8a17e331150d24779a52.jpg

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6 minutes ago, spritzer said:

Denafrips

I wanted to ask which one is that and I found out "Ares".

I shared the internals of dac-1Pro but Dr. Kevin did not like it. That one is damn cheap on taobao. From where did you get yours? And the things you say about it... I even might save some money by selling my digital section and buying that DAC.

Did you use it with USB input?

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It's this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252689559326?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Though the price has gone up almost 130$ since I bought it 11 days ago.  Not sure what version this is but I don't really care.  I always use the USB input and the drivers were flawless as one expects from the XMOS stuff. 

Those are 105°C quality caps so I would expect a lot of life out of them. 

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It is 3980 yuan on taobao. Roughly 580 Dollars. I'll try my chances on tao then. And cuz of fucking government I cannot use paypal so buying from Ebay can be an issue. But first I'll sell my whole digital section. I'm spending shitload of money already for living. I spent nearly half of the money that I saved for 007. Anyway...

Well from China to Iceland 11 days is really fast.

Edited by Sechtdamon
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Spiffy Denafrips! Can you read what opamps are in the analog section on the left, or did they get the Ray Samuels treatment? Also, what regulators are they using in the PS?

12 hours ago, Tinkerer said:

Why not get one of those USB to SPDIF converters? That way you only need one.

 

To back you up, my old Denon AVR-3300 with the 1704's still sounds really good to me, no high frequency problems. Thought I'm looking at getting something new, or building something new.

I am currently using a cheap USB to spdif converter, which is apparently a whole other can of worms. But apparently the YM3623 receivers are notorious for jitter and I'm trying to figure out if it's what's causing that noise. USB to I2S would bypass the YM3623 and go straight to the digital filter. There's some "stop the clock" mod which supposedly improves things, haven't really looked into it but it might be worth trying. Or I could maybe try to hack in a different receiver or add a PLL? Anyone have thoughts/recommendations? 

Doing some light googling, I believe the AVR-3300 uses AD1855s? I know the AVR-5700 uses 1704s and has the ALPHA processing on the 2 main channels, DF1704 on the others. If you're getting something new or "new" then maybe consider jumping on the R2R bandwagon :P

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There are a lot of sanded parts in there so the regulators and opamps are unknown at this point. 

I've been listening pretty much all day and I quite like how this DAC sounds.  The slightly thinner sound does give a lot more insight into the various parts of the spectrum and the separation between instruments is excellent.  Voices are reproduced perfectly, quite startling actually and the bass...let's just say that the Carbon CC shines here.  Not just depth but the detail...something which the SR-009's just can't do the 007's handle easily.  The top end might be a stumbling block for the new, bright as all fuck, Stax sets such as the 507, L700 and 009's.  Far from being bright on the 007's but the extension and presence is something else and it might push the bright squad over the top. 

Now the only thing I'm missing is the volume control on the MSB... 

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so if I count right, that is 50 resistors per string.  which would work out to 25 resistors (sign + 24 bit magnitude) x 2  and then 2 of them which would be balanced for one channel.

so it actually could be really balanced.  3 opamps at the outputs?

funny that they sanded off the part number of the eprom that loads the altera chip

 

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5 hours ago, gepardcv said:

Does this mean you'll get rid of the MSB? :D Also, what's wrong with the volume control on the Carbon?

Nope, no point in selling the MSB.  As for the Carbon, I don't think anybody would classify the Penny+Giles RF15 as having anything wrong with it...  ;)  My issue is a number of amps all running at the same time and thus a PITA to alter the volume of all of them for the different volume levels in different programs. 

2 hours ago, kevin gilmore said:

so if I count right, that is 50 resistors per string.  which would work out to 25 resistors (sign + 24 bit magnitude) x 2  and then 2 of them which would be balanced for one channel.

so it actually could be really balanced.  3 opamps at the outputs?

funny that they sanded off the part number of the eprom that loads the altera chip

 

Three opamps on the outputs and 50 resistors per string and 18 in the shorter ones.  Imagine doing this through hole...  ;D 

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